Cartoons in general are an excellent form of entertainment for young and old alike. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the entire gang of original Looney Tunes characters are an excellent example of first rate animation, voice work, production and entertainment value. These cartoons have been running for decades, entertaining generation after generation, and they’re included in the price of your basic television hookup. That, my friends is value. I have been enjoying Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies cartoons for as long as I can remember and I am certain that no matter how old I get, I will still find something new to laugh at with these great shows - as well as continue to laugh at the ones I’ve practically memorized.

A sign of the quality of these cartoons is the fact that (with the exception of more vivid coloring and crisper sound) many of today’s animated shorts shown on television have no marked improvement in animation quality, content, voices or character development. Keeping in mind the majority of these classics were made in the 40’s and 50’s, really puts an emphasis on the overall quality.

A time line of events related to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and all their pals

1929 – The first “Looney Tunes” was created starring Bosko. The pilot was called “Bosko the Talk Ink Kid”.

1931 – The first “Merrie Melodies” was made.

1934 - Isadore “Friz” Freleng’s (1905-1995) first screen credit for direction. Also, the first color Merrie Melodies (the series would go all color by the end of the year).

1935 – Porky Pig debut in “I haven’t got a hat” a parody of the “Our Gang” comedies.

1936 - Mel “Man of 1000 voices” Blanc (1908-1989) Joins the studio.

1937 – Daffy Duck first appears in “Porky’s duck hunt” with no name.

1938 – Daffy gets a name in “Daffy Duck and Egghead”. Also, Bugs Bunny (or at least the initial nameless Bugs Bunny prototype makes first appearance.

1940 – Bugs Bunny’s first official episode, complete with makeover and new voice. Also introduction of Elmer Fudd.

1942 – Introduction of Beaky Buzzard, Henery Hawk and Tweety Bird. Also, the first color Looney Tunes.

1945 – Introduction of Pepe Le Pew, Sylvester and Yosemite Sam.

1946 – Introduction of Foghorn Leghorn

1948 – Introduction of Hippety Hopper and Marvin Martian

1949 – Introduction of Road Runner and Wile E Coyote.

1953 – Introduction of Speedy Gonzales

1954 – Introduction of Tasmanian Devil and Witch Hazel

1969 – Studio Closes

The Looney Tunes cartoons have plenty of witty lines, funny situations, music, and yes violence. I know there is plenty of debate and concern about violence on television. In today’s sensitive times the decision on whether this is suitable for children should be left to the parents of said children, I will simply say hesitantly “best suited for adults” to spare myself from those who feel young minds are threatened by cartoon violence. There is certainly worse on the evening news and normal network television because that violence is vicious and with ill intent. But I’m not here to debate violence on television, just to give my take on Bugs, Daffy and the rest.

To younger viewers and those without a decent knowledge of things past, the music and some of the gags won’t really click. Considering the time they were made it’s obvious the music in these cartoons won’t be today’s top hits. Also, there are wartime references like rations and the like that younger viewers will not likely “get”. But that certainly doesn’t mean that they won’t find them entertaining. The characters are easy to comprehend and enjoy at virtually any age. For those reading this that may be somewhat unfamiliar with the who’s who of the original Looney Tunes players I will list some by their name, and some additional info that will help with recognition.

THE GANG:

Bugs Bunny
Probably the most recognizable cartoon character ever. Bugs is a ham with a Brooklyn accent who loves to take advantage of the shortcomings of others with often hilarious results.

Daffy Duck
Daffy is Bugs Bunny’s pal, though it’s very obvious that Daffy is jealous of Bugs and all the screen time he gets. Though Daffy tries his hardest he never seems to get the attention and admiration he feels he deserves.

Porky Pig
A sweetheart of a guy, gentle, sensitive but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get angry – and when he does, lookout!

Elmer Fudd
Poor Elmer, the hunter who has never really killed anything. Though Elmer seems mean for hunting poor defenseless animals (HA!), he’s very sensitive and often cries when Bugs outsmarts him beyond his breaking point.

Yosemite Sam
Like a shorter, hairier version of Elmer Fudd. But Yosemite isn’t a hunter, he just hates rabbits. He also has a very quick temper.

Sylvester
Think of him as a feline Elmer Fudd. Though his main target is Tweety Bird, he never seems to have the mental horsepower to get what he wants.

Tweety Bird
On the outside, a cute, little yellow canary. On the inside, a cocky little bird who is always one step ahead of Sylvester and accomplishes pretty amazing things considering birds don’t have hands and spend most of the time in a little cage.

Marvin Martian
Cool little guy, bent on blowing up the Earth. We have Bugs Bunny to thank for our planet’s safety. Marvin’s response, “where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth shattering kaboom.”

Foghorn Leghorn
A witty prankster with a song in his heart (usually camptown races) and a bad pun on the tip of his tongue just waiting for the opportunity to launch it. Foghorn usually gets as good as he gives in the punishment department when he goes up against his dog friend, but he often fares worse against other opponents.

Speedy Gonzales
The fastest mouse in all of Mexico. Speedy usually gets the better of his foes with his blazing speed and amazing luck. He is probably my least favorite regular of the bunch.

Tasmanian Devil
“Taz” started as an excellent character, with his grumbling, spinning around like a tornado and ability to eat just about anything, he’s pretty likable in my opinion. But I guess in an effort to keep such a simple character from getting stale, they had him doing more and more silly things for a laugh and I tended to lose interest in the later episodes with Taz in them. Not to mention the huge popularity and merchandising explosion 10 or so years ago with the Tasmanian Devil on everything from t-shirts, slippers, lunch boxes, house wares, etc.. and being such a big Looney Tunes fan, I ended up with much of it as gifts from well meaning friends and family. I suppose I’ve just been over exposed to our little friend the Tasmanian Devil.

Road Runner
The Road Runner is to Wile E Coyote what Bugs Bunny is to Elmer Fudd, with the exception that the Road Runner doesn’t speak, so the only wisecrack is a “meep meep”.

Wile E Coyote
With the help of the Acme company, Wile E Coyote has more technology and firepower available to him than some small countries. In Road Runner episodes he doesn’t speak, but will hold up a sign such as “Yipes!” to express himself. However, there are episodes where he goes up against Bugs Bunny and does speak. Great quote and moment: says to himself as he’s filling carrots with glycerin to get Bugs with, “Wile E Coyote, super genius, I like the way that rolls out” (as the shack he’s working in is towed on the train tracks by Bugs and a train is approaching) “Wile E Coyote super genius” he then notices the train and pulls down the shade on the window (like it’ll help) and the train hits the shack and he blows up.

Gossamer
This is the big orange hairy monster who wears sneakers that Bugs Bunny played manicurist and hairdresser to. He doesn’t really have any lines, so I can’t give a quote.

Beaky Buzzard
Though his mom calls him “killer”, he’s a simple minded and very bashful little buzzard. In the first episode he’s in, his brothers are sent by their mother to get good-sized animals for dinner. As they fly off, mom notices Beaky still standing there and lowers the bounty and says, “well at least get a little rabbit” – to which Beaky bashfully replies, “uhuh nope nope nope can’t do it” which is when mom kicks him out into the air, he starts flying, notices Bugs Bunny and the fun begins.

Henery Hawk
Henery has his sites set on Foghorn Leghorn - and though he only comes up to about Foghorn’s shin, he’s a tough and feisty little bird who fears nothing. His problem is his youth and inexperience, as he doesn’t know what a chicken really looks like, so he’s easily mislead. But he’s tough, persistent and pretty strong as he drags Foghorn Leghorn around with relative ease.

Pete Puma
This is probably my favorite character that only made one appearance in the original cartoons. Pete Puma is another one unlucky enough to go up against Bugs Bunny in the cartoon “Rabbit’s Kin” from 1952. Pete’s problem is tea and sugar. Bugs asks him about the sugar, “how many lumps do you want” where Pete Puma replies, “oh, 3 or 4” and Bugs whips out a mallet and gives him the lumps, on his noggin. After going through this a couple more times, Bugs offers him some tea and Pete replies, “I don’t want no tea, it gives me a headache, EeEeeee” – Bugs asks him, “well what shall we have then?” the reply, “Coffee! EEEeeeee” and then Pete falls for the lumps gag again. It’s much funnier than I can convey here – also, if you’ve never seen this episode the “Eeeeee” is a noise Pete Puma makes which is like a really pronounced wheezing inhale.

Having seen so many of these cartoons so many times, I can honestly say I enjoy them more now than the first few times I saw them. Even though things get more predictable as you become more familiar with each character’s style, it doesn’t lose anything. There is such range in reaction, from highly overblown reactions to subtle little gestures, it’s truly funny stuff. I truly feel the older (and more realistic in mind) you get, the funnier these shows become. To see a character in what we could consider horrible danger and to have them turn to us and simply let out a little “yikes” just cracks me up. There are so many things I find entertaining about the original Looney Tunes that I could literally write a book about it (but of course I’ll spare you from each individual detail).

Another thing that impresses me is the diversity among the characters themselves. The writing and animation gives such a different personality to each of them (which is one thing), but the real incredible thing is the voices. They are so different, so unique and most of the voices for the characters listed above come from the same man.

If you didn’t know, an extremely talented man by the name of Mel Blanc did the voices for many cartoon characters during his life. He was an amazing man, who was called “The Man of 1,000 Voices” and if that title could fit anyone – it would certainly be him. Not only did he do many voices but they were so different from each other. From high pitched voices to a low grunting and everything in between, the first time you hear his work knowing whose voices he’s providing it’s just awesome.

Here are just some of the voices Mel Blanc provided for Looney Tunes:

Bugs Bunny – Porky Pig – Foghorn Leghorn – Pep Le Pew – Sylvester – Speedy Gonzales – Tweety Bird – Yosemite Sam – Wile E Coyote – Tasmanian Devil – Road Runner – Marvin Martian – Henery Hawk – Beaky Buzzard and Cecil Turtle

Mel Blanc also provided the voices for these characters you might know:

Woody Woodpecker
Barney Rubble and Dino from The Flintstones
Heathcliff
Captain Caveman
Secret Squirrel
Speed Buggy
Mr. Spacely from The Jetsons

This listing is by no means complete! Mel Blanc had amazing talent and dedication to his craft. In fact, he even had work related things put on his tombstone.

It reads:

“That’s All Folks”
MEL BLANC
Man of 1000 voices
Beloved husband and father
1908 – 1989

Sad, but cool. If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can at FindaGrave.com

To go back on my soapbox for a moment - defending one of my all time favorite cartoons, I have had quite a bit of exposure to these cartoons since my creation in 1967 and I have never shot a duck, bunny or human being in the face. I have never dropped an anvil on someone’s head. I have never handcuffed someone to a bomb, or hit anyone with a mallet. I’ve never chased anyone with a hatchet, nor have I ever tricked someone into falling from a high place. I don’t recall if I’ve ever used an umbrella as a parachute when falling (but I kind of think I haven’t) and I’ve never used or owned a pair of rocket-powered roller skates (but I’d like to).

These are great, timeless cartoons that I highly recommend to anyone. They’re great watching alone, with a friend, spouse, family member, etc. I have had the dullest, monotone, lifeless people come to my house while I was watching cartoons and it’d get them to relax and be a kid again. Forgetting about stock markets, and debt, and everything else and just enjoying themselves in a pure and simple way. What more can you ask for from something you get for free?

While I have you in my cartoon world, I’d like to also suggest the following funny cartoons:

Hong Kong Phooey
A classic. Not the most popular cartoon and it does tend to get old after a while because the plot is the same in every episode. Hong Kong Phooey (aka: Henry the janitor) is a crime fighter who lacks coordination, skill and reasoning power and his cat sidekick solves each case without his knowledge and he takes all the credit. Even still, it’s a pretty funny cartoon.

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales
This wasn’t even as popular as Hong Kong Phooey, but I like it quite a bit. Tennessee Tuxedo is a penguin (voiced by Don Adams of “Get Smart” fame) that has a dimwitted walrus sidekick named Chumley and they live in the zoo but are always scheming about ways to get things done.

Ren & Stimpy
A cat and dog team. Truly a cartoon for immature adults. Lots of references to bodily functions and the like. Not for everyone, and goes off on bizarre tangents at times that even I don’t get.

South Park
Not for children or many adults. There are references to all kinds of foul things in this cartoon. If you’re childish enough with a high tolerance for the obscene, you just might enjoy it.

The Simpsons
In my opinion the best modern cartoon there is. It airs on the Fox network Sundays at 8:00 pm (EST). The writing and animation isn’t perfect (but nothing is) but I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full episode where I didn’t laugh at least once. I like those odds.

Family Guy
This is a pretty weird cartoon, it’s unique and may have been picked up for another season on Fox (though I’m not sure). Interesting writing on this show, where a scene will go from something normalish to something completely bizarre in reference to whatever the person said. The first few times I saw this show and they did that, I’d be sitting there laughing and thinking “what?!” at the same time. I enjoy it quite a bit.

That’s all folks!

So thank you for viewing my write-up on Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Looney Tunes in general – and if you actually read the entire thing, “wow” and thanks even more. If this didn’t totally destroy your reading quota for the day, feel free to check out some of my other writings here on epinions. Feel free to read, trust (or not) and rate anything I have here [that’s what it’s here for]. Thanks again for stopping in. Hope you learned something.

Recommended: Yes

Type of Program: Cartoon or Animated
Program Quality: Entertaining, but not intellectually or emotionally engaging
Best Suited For: 9 Years or Older